On the Horizon: Pixar Learns From 'Monsters University'

For its new feature film, "Monsters University," Pixar Animation Studios went back to school.

The movie, scheduled for release June 21, is a prequel to Pixar's 2001 "Monsters, Inc.," which grossed $559.8 million world-wide, according to Hollywood.com, including its 3-D re-release last December.

The new film traces the lives of "Monsters, Inc." characters Mike (voiced by Billy Crystal) and Sulley (John Goodman) back to college, where they majored in Scaring and joined the Oozma Kappa fraternity.

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In the film, Mike's sole ambition is to become a professional Scarer—a monster employed to capture "scream energy" by frightening children in their beds at night. But college forces him to realize it isn't going to be as easy as he thought.

Pixar, a unit of Walt Disney Co.DIS-0.02%, has made sequels to some of its computer-animated films, creating the "Toy Story" and "Cars" franchises. But "Monsters University," its first prequel, required a different approach.

'Scaring 101'

"It's tough to tell a story when everyone knows how it ends, so that was one of the biggest challenges," said director Dan Scanlon. "We were telling a story about a character whose dream didn't work out the way he thought it would, and that's what we found interesting."

The 36-year-old Mr. Scanlon, whose film includes scenes of freshman orientation, Greek "Scare Games" and dormitories strewn with empty pizza boxes, didn't himself have a traditional college experience. A graduate of the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio, he studied illustration and fine arts.

"It was me with my head down, working as much as I could, painting and drawing and going to live-model classes and studying design," he said. "The one part I think is universal to college that I experienced was this sense of growing up and self-discovery."

"Monsters University" is set on a leafy campus with brick buildings and cobblestone paths, "monsterized" to include fanged archways and spiked domes.

For research, Mr. Scanlon, co-writers Daniel Gerson and Robert L. Baird, and a team of artists visited Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley.

"For a lot of us, it had been a little while since we had graduated from college, and it was great just to feel that atmosphere again," said Mr. Baird, 41, a graduate of Ryerson University in Toronto.

The research team sketched and photographed campus architecture—the Monsters University campus boasts an ornate gate and bell tower—and spent time observing students. They noticed that college students were, by and large, stressed out, and wanted the film to convey the same feeling. "Even though we were making our characters crazy monsters, we wanted to make sure that their dreams and the pressures felt very real," said Mr. Scanlon.

One of the film's biggest hurdles was to keep it all G-rated. Most Pixar films are rated G, though "Brave," "Up," and "The Incredibles" were rated PG, a signal that they might contain some material unsuitable for children.

In one scene, the monsters are dancing and acting wild at a fraternity party. But they never drink or take drugs, and they don't have any monster sex.

"There's a general sense of the fun of being a college student, without any of the things that might be in a more adult-oriented college film," said Mr. Gerson, 46, who went to Cornell University and was a member of the Sigma Pi fraternity.

For their part, Mike and Sulley find themselves part of the earnest, nerdy band of fraternity brothers at Oozma Kappa.

"Oozma Kappa's idea of a party is to build a fort out of couch cushions," Mr. Baird said.

Pixar's extensive marketing of "Monsters University" includes promotional materials that mimic actual college mailers and websites, including a message from the dean and sections on campus life and admissions. An online store sells real "MU" merchandise like hoodie sweatshirts and window decals.

How did Pixar try to make the film appealing to children who might be too young to understand what college is all about? "We're looking for thematic ideas that resonate no matter what setting they're in," Mr. Gerson said, adding that they had "a huge win" in the fact that the characters are monsters.

He also said that the brothers of Oozma Kappa are childlike, especially Squishy, a many-eyed, shy monster who still lives with his mother, Ms. Squibbles, a sweet and surprising character in her own right.

"We always like to do stuff at Pixar where kids are going to laugh because we have funny shapes and slapstick, and adults are going to appreciate it because it's also playing on their level," Mr. Gerson said.

Another challenge was to fit the prequel into the world of "Monsters, Inc." Moviegoers who have seen the original film already know, for example, that Mike and Sulley end up becoming Scarers.

So the filmmakers focused on the theme of defining oneself in the face of unexpected obstacles. In other words, college isn't easy for Mike and Sulley.

"So often in movies, we say if you work hard and never give up, everything will always work out," Mr. Scanlon said. "It's not always true, and we wanted to make a movie for the people who had things not work out."

—To see an exclusive clip of a scene from "Scaring 101 class" at "Monsters University," go to WSJ.com/Speakeasy.

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